The Grubsters in the News

From the Deccan Chronicle article Puppetnama

Shreyas Raj, a student of puppetry says, “I went for a puppet show and that’s how I got interested in it. I’ve been learning rod and string puppetry for three years now.”
He adds, “I like puppetry because it’s a fascinating live medium for story-telling and it’s going to remain a passion for me.”
For design student Alannah D’Souza, puppetry is a brand new avenue. Alannah’s “Grub” is a set of four hungry monsters that exhibit instinctive behaviour when you play hunt and attack. Two are bigger glove puppets and two, smaller finger puppets which react when in contact with the bigger characters. Alannah explains, “One puppet vibrates and trembles in fear and the other lights up when it’s scared.” Though these are not part of a puppet theatre, they are built to be interactive.
However, the biggest innovation in puppetry would be that of the robotic arm created by Prof Dinesh NS, who teaches electronic design technology at IISc. Instead of manual manipulation of puppets, the puppets are controlled by a robotic arm programmed to imitate a puppeteer’s movements. Prof Dinesh is also one of the participants in the puppet festival to be held in May.

Interaction Prototype

With the earlier prototype I had tested the basic concept of Grub i.e. a set of monsters that each other. I know need to test two aspects of the toy:

1) How well the characters work as hand puppets?
2) How kids react to behavior of the embedded electronics?

1) HAND PUPPETS
In order to test this I have created very rough fabric prototypes of each character. I also have done this to see what kids understand of the form of each character and how they use them.
Shrimp with a finger pocket under its belly.


Fig opening its dull covering to show off bright inner petals.





Saber with finger spaces for pincers and velcro lice on its feet.


Blob with finger pockets on either side and in its eye socket/ neck. And a velcro patch on its bottom for eating lice. yummy!

2)ELECTRONICS
I have created a sock character to see how kids will react to blob lighting up. And hope to hear through the test what kinds of behaviour they would like it exhibit (fear, death etc.)


Yayeee! It actually works!